China hammers nails into the GE coffin – what country is next?

Recently China proposed to legislate against genetically engineered (GE) grains. This means that staple foods, such as rice cannot be researched, planted or sold on the Chinese market nor can it be exported.

Other Asian countries, such as the Philippines and Bangladesh are currently in the process of developing and commercializing GE grains and the proposed grain law in China will send a message to decision makers globally that GE is not welcome in Asia, which companies, such as Monsanto and Beyer, regard as a key future market for their GE seeds.

While we await the legislative proposal to be passed into law, China should focus its future investments on sustainable agriculture that has the capacity of providing rice to all Chinese, just as it has in the past 7000 years. We believe that ecological farming should be adopted as the national policy framework for food and agriculture in China and in all other countries around the globe to form a solution that provides food for all.